2/21/2008 @ 10:16PM

A New Space Race?

China isn’t happy about the United States shooting down a dead spy satellite this week, and no one should be surprised. As a new race for space gets under way between the two countries, expect an escalation of rhetoric in the years to come.

John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, says that “to interpret this particular event as an armament thing is incorrect.” But the U.S. gave China heat for keeping mum after blasting apart one of its own satellites in an anti-satellite weapons test last year. A tit-for-tat was inevitable.

“We criticized them,” says Vincent Sabathier, director of the human space exploration program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “As a result, they say, ‘Well, you are doing exactly the same thing.’ “

It’s just the latest episode amid growing distrust between the U.S. and China when it comes to space-related military technology. Two weeks ago, U.S. agents arrested a former
Boeing
engineer for allegedly supplying China with Boeing trade secrets on several aerospace programs, including the space shuttle. Last year, sources told Forbes.com that military contractors Boeing,
Lockheed Martin
and
Northrop Grumman
had been targeted by China-based cyber-intruders.

More proof of security suspicions: Earlier this week, a deal that would have allowed a Chinese company, Huawei, to buy a meager 16.5% stake in U.S. tech company
3Com
fell apart amid signs that Washington might not approve the transaction for national security reasons. (See: “3Com Runs Up Against Uncle Sam“)

The American military, more than any other on earth, depends on control of space to operate. From global positioning systems to reconnaissance, all branches of the U.S. armed forces make heavy use of satellite communications.

China’s space ambitions follow a path already blazed by the U.S. and Russia. Their goal seems to be to assert space dominance over other nations in Asia, but given their ambitions, tensions with the U.S. seem inevitable. China put its first man in space in 2003 and last October launched its first lunar orbiter. China has plans to expand its lunar program, with the goal of putting an unmanned vehicle on the Moon by 2012 and sending people there by 2020. At the moment, China does not have plans to send people to Mars.

But it does have big plans to expand its satellite system. The China National Space Administration says one of its main goals is to build a “high-resolution Earth observation system” (spy satellites)–it’s planning to launch long-lasting scientific and telecommunications satellites and it’s developing low-cost, pollution-free rockets.

China says it has no military ambitions in outer space, but its planned investment in satellite technology and anti-satellite weapons test last year seem to indicate that it at least wants to be prepared should a space weapons race ensue. The Chinese do seem willing to negotiate, however. Earlier this month China and Russia proposed a treaty at the United Nations to ban weapons in space. The U.S. balked, saying it was unnecessary and impossible to enforce. Seems it doesnt want its hands tied, either.

For the moment, Chinas space program seems to be an effort to get a technological leg up on nations like Japan, which launched a lunar space probe last year, and India, which plans to do the same thing soon.

“China is not looking to challenge the U.S.,” says Sabathier. “They are trying to become number two.” The game’s already begun.